This invention relates to the preparation of large mailings and the like. More particularly it relates to systems and apparatus for the preparation of documents and the assembly of multiple mailpieces including such documents, and tracking of mailpieces which are damaged and manually repaired in this process.
The term "mailpieces" as used herein means items intended to be delivered to an addressee by a postal service or in any other convenient manner. Typically preparation of mailpieces includes, but is not limited to, printing or otherwise providing documents including variable information pertaining to addressees of the mailpieces and the assembly of such documents with other elements of the mailpiece. The term "assembly" as used herein means the execution of actions to incorporate the documents into mailpieces. Typically, such actions can include: accumulating documents with other materials such as preprinted inserts, folding and inserting the resulting accumulations into envelopes, printing addresses and other information on the outside of the envelopes, and franking the mailpiece with an appropriate postage amount.
Inserter systems for the assembly of mailpieces are well known. A typical inserter system is shown in FIG. 1. Inserter system 10 includes burster/feeder 12 which inputs preprinted documents in fanfold form, separates the documents. Each group of documents for a particular mailpiece includes at least control document CD. At least control documents CD are marked with code BC which is read by scanner 14. In simpler systems code BC can be a "dash code" of the type known for use in directly controlling inserter systems. In newer, more complex systems code BC can be a conventional bar code which serves as a pointer to a mailpiece record, which record contains information for controlling the inserter; as will be more fully described below. In other known inserter systems, a cut sheet document feeder can be used in place of burster/feeder 12 and documents can be in cut sheet form.
Control document CD, and any additional associated pages P are fed from burster feeder 12 to accumulator 16 where documents for each mailpiece are formed into separate accumulations A and folded.
Accumulation A is then fed to insert stations 20A and 20B where preprinted inserts I are added to form accumulations A1 and A2. Those skilled in the art will of course recognize that the number of such insert stations used will vary from application to application.
Accumulation A2 is then fed to insert station 22 where it is inserted into an envelope and sealed to form mailpiece MP.
Mailpiece MP is then fed to address printer 24 which prints address AD on the outside of the envelope. Depending on the size of the print field of printer 24, printer 24 also can be used to print other information such as a variable return address (or other text message) RA, logo L, and postal barcode PBC on the envelope. (Those skilled in the art will recognize that dash codes as described above typically cannot include sufficient information to define even address AD so that systems incorporating dash codes typically use window envelopes to provide addressing information.)
System 10 also includes outstacker 30 for diverting mailpieces when an error is detected.
As noted above, inserter systems wherein said code BC is a barcode which is used as a pointer to a mailpiece record (i.e. an electronic record associated with a mailpiece to be assembled) are known. By incorporating data for controlling assembly of mailpieces in mailpiece records an essentially unlimited amount of data can be associated with each mailpiece. Thus addresses, return addresses, logos, and postal bar codes can all readily specified in addition to specification of the number of inserts to be added at each insert feeder, postage amounts, etc. Systems incorporating such mailpiece records are described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,505; to: Axelrod et al.; for: Mail Preparation System; issued Jan. 24, 1989. Embodiments of the system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,505 are marketed by the assignee of the present application under the name "Direct Connection", described in The Direct Connection, version 1.30.
A typical MRDF record which is associated with a mailpiece to be processed is shown in Table 1 below.
TABLE I MRDF Record Start Length Description 1-60 60 Full Name 61-120 60 Address 1 121-180 60 Address 2 181-240 60 Address 3 241-300 60 Street (Primary) 301-328 28 City 329-344 15 State 345-349 5 Zip 5 350-353 4 Zip + 4 354-355 2 Zip + 2 356-360 10 Carrier Route 361-362 2 Presort Type (EC/CC/P/R) 363-372 10 Sequence # (Piece ID) 373-379 7 Job ID 380 1 Break 1 Flag (Y/N) 381-382 2 Outsort (Bin #) 383 1 Sealer (Y/N) Total Length 383
In the record shown in Table 1, bytes 1-60 specify the addressee's name; bytes 61-240 specify 3 lines of additional addressee information such as additional addressees, titles, etc.; bytes 241-344 specify the address; bytes 345-355 specify the Zip Code with either a two or four digit extension; bytes 356-360 specify a carrier route; bytes 361-362 identify the type of presorting which has been carried out for the mailing; bytes 363-372 specify the mailpiece ID, which increases or decreases by one, monotonically for each mailpiece; bytes 373-379 specify the job or mailing in process, and with the mailpiece ID uniquely identify the mailpiece; byte 380 flags a break in the mailing; bytes 381-382 specify he intended disposition of the finished mailpiece, i.e. the destination outsort bin; and byte 383 specifies whether or not the mailpiece is to be sealed. (Though not shown in FIG. 1, sealers are conventional in inserter systems.)
Other information which can be included in MRDF records can be information such as messages or return addresses or specification of the number of inserts to be added at each insert station. In general the information and format of MRDF records is limited only by the system capabilities and provides substantially unlimited flexibility in controlling mailpiece processing. In particular, incorporation of information which uniquely identifies each mailpiece permits tracking of mailpieces which are damaged and manually repaired in the manner described below. (As used herein "manual repair" includes any off-line process involving operator intervention used to restore mailpieces which have been damaged to mailable condition.)
While systems such as those described above have proven highly successful, certain problems remain. In particular modem inserter systems operate at extremely high processing rates which require that documents, inserts and envelopes all be moved and handled at high speeds with the result that a small percentage of documents will be damaged, typically causing the system to jam. Since in many applications it is critical that mailings be complete (e.g. mailing of bills or invoices by suppliers), methods must be provided to repair or replace damaged mailpieces. Heretofore such methods have relied upon difficult and time consuming reprogramming of a data processing system to regenerate the documents for a misprocessed mailpiece so that the damaged mailpiece could be regenerated by the inserter system, or manual repair of damaged mailpieces.
Another solution to the problem of regenerating mailpieces wherein systems are programmed for automatic regeneration of damaged or misprocessed mailpieces is described in commonly assigned, co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/134,977, titled: "Method and System for Regeneration of Misprocessed Mailpieces or the Like". filed: Aug. 17, 1998.
Since special reprogramming of systems to regenerate particular damaged mailpieces is difficult and expensive and not all systems include software for automatic regeneration as described in the above mentioned co-pending application, in many cases manual repair of damaged mailpieces remains the most effective solution to the problem of maintaining the integrity of mailings. While in general manual repair has proven to be effective it does create its own problems; particularly problems of misidentification of repaired mailpieces. Heretofore when an operator had repaired a mailpiece he or she would input the identification of the repaired mailpiece so that the system could continue to track it and maintain records which would evidence completeness of the mailing. Clearly this is a tedious and error prone process and too often an operator would misidentify a repaired mailpiece, compromising the systems ability to provide assurance that mailings were complete.
Thus it is an object of the subject invention to provide a system, apparatus and method for the preparation and assembly of mailpieces with an improved capability for tracking mailpieces which have been damaged in preparation and manually repaired.